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Saturday, April 01, 2006

Amores Perros directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

When a director shifts gears as often as does Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the man behind the emotionally rich debut film "Amores Perros," you may wonder if he knows what he wants. He does, and this film is satisfying in many ways. He is unashamed to immerse this tough-minded, episodic film noir in freshets of melodrama. Significantly, he knows the minute difference between being unashamed and being shameless, and because he knows how to keep things hopping -- working from an intricate script by Guillermo Arrianga that has a novelistic texture -- we watch a man with immaculate control of the medium.(...)It's rare that a director can enter films with this much verve and emotional understanding. Mr. Gonzalez Inarritu loves actors, and his cast brings so many different levels of feeling to the picture that the epic length goes by quickly. "Amores Perros" vaults onto the screen, intoxicated by the power of filmmaking -- speeded-up movement and tricked-up cuts that convey a shallow mastery of craft -- but evolving into a grown-up love of narrative. In his very first film Mr. Gonzalez Inarritu makes the kind of journey some directors don't, or can't, travel in an entire career.